Glory Days
by Misha
Summary: AU after Yesterday. Mark comes to Seattle and it turns out that he and a certain intern share a past...
1. Part One Long Time Gone

Glory Days  
By Misha

Disclaimer- I don't own "Grey's Anatomy", if I did Derek and Meredith would be together, it belongs to people with a lot more money than me. I'm not making any money off of this, so please don't sue me. Thanks.

Author's Notes- I have this terrible tendency to start new stories, even though I have many unfinished ones. I know, I know and I know I need to stop it, but I can't help it. This one came to me suddenly, during class and I just couldn't help it. It's set during the first few minutes of "Yesterday" and branches off from there. It gives an interesting twist to things, I think. As I said, I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. That's all for now, enjoy!

Pairings- Mark/Meredith, Mark/Addison, Derek/Meredith, and Derek/Addison.

Summery- AU after "Yesterday". Mark comes to Seattle and it turns out that he and a certain intern share a past...

Spoilers- Up to "Yesterday".

Rating- PG-13

* * *

Chapter One- Long Time Gone  
  
Mark Sloane stared at the blonde woman bent over a chart, deep in careful thought. What in the Hell was she doing there? It had been nearly a decade since he had seen her and he could barely believe his eyes. He had come to Seattle to pursue the woman he loved and ended up coming face to face with the woman he had loved and lost too many years before.

Before he could stop himself, he walked up behind her and grabbed her from behind and lifted her off the ground.

"What the hell?" She said angrily, then turned to face him.

Her eyes widened in shock. "Mark!" She exclaimed, as if unable to believe her own eyes.

"Hello Merry-girl." Mark said softly, setting her back on her feet. "It's been as long time." Eleven years to be exact. "Still as gorgeous as ever, I see."

Meredith just froze and then reached up and slapped him. Hard. "You jackass." She seethed.

Mark wasn't surprised by the reaction or the slap, he probably deserved it. After all, he and Merry had a pretty brutal history and their last meeting had been pretty ugly.

Her next reaction, did surprise him, though. To his complete and utter amazement, she pulled him towards her and kissed him passionately. 

It only took Mark a second to respond, wrapping his arms around her tightly and losing himself in a kiss that was still as sweet as he remembered and the feel of a woman he had never been able to forget, no matter how hard he tried.

* * *

Meredith wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but it had been instinct. First, she had slapped him for all the pain he had caused her, then she kissed him passionately, letting out almost ten years of repression.

She hadn't seen Mark since she was eighteen years old, but she'd thought of him many times over the years. Thought of what'd she say and do if she ever set eyes on him, but when it happened, all she could do was give into her emotions. After all, she couldn't help it, it was Mark. _Her_ Mark.

Meredith savoured the kiss, the feel of him against her. This was the first _real_ kiss she'd had since Derek, a kiss full of passion and emotion. Of course, that might be because it was with the only man other than Derek she'd ever let get close to her and well, like Derek, he had broken her.

Still, she wasn't going to focus on that or what the _Hell_ Mark Sloane, plastic surgeon extraordinaire, was doing in Seattle, for the moment, she was just going to kiss him.

* * *

Derek got off the elevator and froze in horror at the sight in front of him. He couldn't, wouldn't, believe his eyes. Because there, not teen feet in front him was _Meredith_ kissing _Mark_.

Derek was sure he had to be dreaming, because something so horrible could only happen in a nightmare, yet he was wide awake. After a moment, he reacted with his gut and went up to them and tapped Mark on the shoulder, punching him as soon as the couple broke for air. 

"Derek!" Meredith screamed, staring at him. "What in the Hell is wrong with you?!" She cradled Mark's face in her hands, still looking at Derek in horror.

"What's wrong with me?" He demanded. "YOu're the one who was kissing Mark!"

Meredith looked confused. "How do you--" She began, then she turned ridiculously pale. "Mark. This is _your_ Mark, the one who-"

"Slept with my wife, yes." Derek answered flatly.

Mark looked pale as well. "Wait, _you're _Derek's intern?" He asked in disbelief.

Meredith nodded.

Derek was confused. What in the Hell was going on. "Wait, how do you know Mark?" He asked Meredith.

He had assumed the kiss was for his benefit, yet they didn't appear to know who the other one was, so... Why _were _they kissing? Had Meredith decided to start kissing random men in the hospital, in addition to her habit of picking them up in bars and having sex with them?

Mark and Meredith exchanged a long look.

"He's my ex-husband." Meredith said flatly and Derek felt the bottom drop out of his world.

* * *


	2. Part Two: Isn't It Ironic?

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Two- Isn't It Ironic

Addison froze at the sight in front of her--something right out of a nightmare, Mark, Meredith and Derek all together. What in the Hell was Mark even doing in Seattle? She approached them with apprehension, just in time to hear Meredith speak.

"He's my ex-husband." The other woman said flatly, looking at Derek.

Addison froze, only feet away from the trio. She had to have heard that wrong. Yet... She knew Mark had been married once, during the fifth year of his and Derek's residency and the third year of hers.

She and Derek had been newly married and had gone off to Europe of their honeymoon, enjoying their first vacation in many years. In the three months they were gone, Mark had managed to meet a woman, marry her and get divorced.

He never really talked about it much and Addison only knew the bare details, that she had been eighteen, he'd met her in Boston, fallen in love with her and then lost her. Also that her name had been 'Merry'.

"Merry. Meredith." Addison said hollowly, not realizing she was speaking out loud until the trio whirled to face her.

"Addie." Mark stated, staring at her.

Derek looked from Mark to Meredith, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You were _married_?"

"Yes." Meredith confirmed softly, her eyes haunted. "A long time ago."

Addison looked at the other woman, feeling a spark of compassion--there was something in that look, something Addison recognized from the mirror. The look of a love that didn't work out, that left it's scar, no matter how hard you tried to hold it together. She'd thought that look was for Derek, and resented it, but now she understood.

She had always considered, as did most of the hospital, Meredith Grey to be more than a little damaged and now some of the pieces fit better. Addison knew that the brief marriage had left it's marks on Mark and it had obviously done the same for Meredith.

Of course, that didn't make the situation any less complicated. Suddenly, amused by the whole situation, the irony of Derek sleeping with the ex-wife of the man she had an affair with, hit and she burst into hysterical laughter...

* * *

Meredith heard Addison start laughing and had to admit that she was biting back the impulse. There was something very comical about this whole situation. 

Mark walks back into her life and it turns out, that he's the man who broke up Derek and Addison's marriage. Her fellow dirty mistress, so to speak. Yes, someone definitely had a sense of humour, that was for sure.

"Isn't this a funny little quadrangle?" She mused out loud. "We have the formerly estranged couple, his dirty mistress and hers, who it turns out were once married. Definitely complicated."

Derek was still staring at her, while Mark was just giving her that searching look of his. "Meredith..." Derek began finally, staring at her beseechingly.

"I can't do this. Not here." Meredith said. "I'm working. I have work to do."

She just needed to get away from this, away from Mark and Derek and Addison and from the audience she was sure that they attracted. She needed to clear her head, but...

"Merry..." Mark said, giving her a careful look.

"Later." She told him. "Meet me... Later... When I'm done, please?"

She was careful not to look at Derek, who she was sure was glowering at her, but she couldn't help it. She needed to talk to Mark, it had been so long and there was... Well, it was Mark.

"Okay." Mark said quietly.

Meredith shot him a grateful look and then hurried away, needing to get far away, besides she had a patient. Besides, she just wanted to get away. Yes, fate definitely had a sense of humour. Mark was here and he was Derek's Mark.

Meredith let out a small, humourless laugh. Not only did fate have a sense of humour it had impeccable timing, there was definitely something ironic about the fact that Mark, the first man who had ever really broken her, who had left wounds that she wasn't sure would ever heal would show up in her life again now, now that she was just recovering from another heartbreak, another man's damage and that Mark was somehow responsible for setting it all in motion...

Yes, life definitely worked in mysterious ways...

* * *

Derek couldn't believe what he had just heard and witnessed. Mark and Meredith had been _married_. He'd known of Mark's brief marriage, of course, had spent many a night that first year dealing with a drunken Mark drying to wipe away the memories. 

He hadn't known all the details, even drunk Mark found it hard to talk about it, but he knew that Mark had loved her and that it had been brief and brilliant and it had exploded. He also knew that after that summer, Mark, always a womaniser, had become a hundred times worse--no woman lasting more than a couple weeks, if that. It was as if he was determined to never let himself be in a position where he could get hurt again.

Derek shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "You and I always did have the same taste in women, didn't we?" Mark said dryly, breaking the silence that had enveloped them since Meredith had scurried away.

Addison made a strangled sound, but Derek ignored her. He didn't want to deal with her, and whatever she was going to say about Mark's arrival, right then.

"I have work to do." He said, not bothering to respond to Mark's retort, instead he just turned and walked away leaving both Mark and Addison staring after him.

Silently, he cursed the fates, deciding that they really were a bitch. After all, why else would he have fallen in love with his wife-stealing best friend's ex-wife?

Though, he had to admit that there was definitely a bit of karmic justice in the whole thing. Mark slept with his wife and he turned around and slept with Mark's ex-wife, though accidentally. Oh, yeah, fate was definitely a bitch all right, no question about it.

* * *


	3. Part Three: Sweet Emotion

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Three- Sweet Emotion

"What in the Hell is going on?" Christina demanded, cornering Meredith. "What was that scene with you, the Shepherds and the mystery hunk?"

"It's a long, long story." Meredith told her with a sigh. "That was Mark." She said after a moment.

"As in, wife-stealing Mark?" Christina asked, raising an eyebrow. "That explains Derek's blow up, but not the epic kiss. Or has the picking random men in the bars extended to work hours? I know it wasn't just to piss off Derek."

"He's my ex-husband." Meredith said quietly. "Mark is, I mean."

Christina just stared at her. "Wow." She said finally. "That... Wow. I did **not** see that coming. You're going to spill." 

"Later." Meredith promised, not willing to talk about it right then, not even to Christina. "I have to work. I have a case, with Burke."

"He's mad at me." Christina said, rolling her eyes. "He found out about the apartment."

Meredith winced. "Ouch." She managed a small smile. "I'm sure Burke's not nearly as mad at you as Derek at me--after all, you only lied about your apartment, I was once married to his wife-stealing former best friend." 

"True." Christina commented and grinned. "For once you win that your life sucks more."

"Thank you." Meredith said, taking a small bow. "I'm glad we can all agree with that."

"Anytime." Christina said and then she walked away.

Meredith hurried off as well, eager to get to work and to keep her mind off Mark and Derek and everything. Mark, here in Seattle... That'd be a lot to cope with, without adding everything else up.

The worst part was it had only taken an instant for her to realize that Mark could still affect her just like he had that summer so long ago.

Meredith had thought that Derek had finally helped her get over Mark at long last, that falling in love again had meant that she was over the heartbreak of the past, but now she knew it was far from the truth. No, all Derek had done was leave his own wounds on her already bruised heart. Apparently, he and Mark really did have a lot in common.

* * *

"What the Hell was that?" Richard demanded of Derek. "Punching people in the hospital! Causing scenes?! That's not what I pay you for." 

"That was Mark." Derek said slowly.

"Mark?" Richard asked, looking from Derek to Addison. He'd dragged them into his office right after Meredith had taken off.

Alex Karev was looking after Mark's face.

"Mark Sloane was our best friend, Derek and I's." Addison said slowly. "Until Derek walked in and found me in bed with."

Richard nodded, as if understanding.

"Then, today he saw Mark and Meredith kissing and snapped." Addison said bitterly. Richard looked surprised, then he froze.

"Mark Sloane?" He repeated after a moment. "He's in Seattle?"

"You knew?" Derek asked in disgust, realizing that Richard's reaction wasn't because of Mark's reputation as a surgeon, but because he had somehow known about his relationship with Meredith. "You knew they were married?"

"Yes." Richard said, without elaborating. "I knew. So, Sloane's here..." He looked at Derek and Addison. "That's enough, you two can go. Just, try not to hit anybody else, okay?"

Derek nodded, knowing that Richard was just as perturbed by Mark's arrival in Seattle as he was. Derek could say one thing about Mark, he certainly knew how to stir things up, that was for sure.

* * *

"Do you know Meredith well?" Mark asked the intern who had been assigned to help him suture his own face, an Alex Karev.

"I know her." Karev answered non-commitedly.

"Is she good at her job?" Mark asked quietly. "Because the Meredith Grey I knew was too rash, too compassionate, too impulsive to be a surgeon."

"She's one of the best." Karev told him. "She's all those things, but she's also talented and dedicated."

Mark smiled at that thought. He could see that, still it was hard to imagine that his Merry, who used to rebel against anything even remotely connected to her mother had gone on to become a surgeon. It was just a sign of how many things had changed. 

"She's also been hurt. Badly." Karev warned him quietly. "I don't know what the story is, but I know what Shepherd did to her and I know that she can't handle any more damage. Just leave her alone."

"I can't." Mark said quietly, almost regretfully. "Meredith and I... We go back way beyond Derek Shepherd."

Karev just gave him a long and appraising look, then changed the subject, mentioning a case they had there...

* * *


	4. Part Four: Long Way Down

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Four- Long Time Gone

"You've changed." Mark commented later, when he had managed to corner Meredith.

"You haven't." She said quietly, then smiled. "You look good, Mark."

"So do you, Merry-girl, so do you." He said softly. "Can I buy you dinner and a drink?"

"You didn't come here for me." She said quietly. "We both know that."

"No, I didn't." He agreed. "That's because I didn't know you were here, but... It's been a long time, Merry..."

"Yes, it has." She agreed, then sighed. "Ok, you can buy me dinner."

Mark grinned. "Perfect. First, though, I have surgery. Lionitis. Best part is, it's Derek's patient."

Meredith shook her head and sighed. "Is that a good idea?"

"Probably not." Mark told him. "But nothing about this mess is."

"You slept with his wife." Meredith said quietly.

"And he slept with mine." Mark replied. "Though to be fair, he didn't know it."

Meredith just looked tired. "Fate definitely likes to screw us, doesn't it?" She asked softly, pushing her hair back out of her face.

"Oh yeah." Mark agreed, feeling a little bit like Fate's bitch. He'd come to Seattle for Addison, there was no doubt about that, and a part of him still wanted to find her and convince her to come back with him, but now there was the complication of Meredith.

He'd spent ten years trying to forget her and had never really succeeded and the truth was, he loved Addison, but he had never stopped loving Meredith either and he had realized that the second he saw her again. Ten years ago, she had fascinated him from the moment they had met and that still held true.

The woman in front of him wasn't the Merry Grey he remembered, after all he had known a stubborn and rebellious young woman, barely more than a child, while the woman standing in front of him was all grown up, but there were things that had remained. Watching her, he could catch glimpses of the vulnerable, fragile young woman he had known.

"I need to get back to work." Meredith said after a long moment.

Mark nodded. "Me too. So dinner, tonight?"

Meredith nodded. "Dinner."

With that she walked away, leaving Mark staring after her, wondering what his next move should be. He had come to Seattle for Addison, but now he had no idea if he should try and talk to her or not, or if that would just be making things even more complicated.

Yes, fate definitely had a sense of humour.

* * *

Derek was livid at the fact that he would have to work with Mark. He'd tried arguing with Richard, but he had lost, even if the other man had seemed as disgruntled about it as him.

Mark's presence at Seattle Grace definitely didn't thrill Richard, probably something to do with his history with Meredith, a history that Derek had to admit he was desperately curious about.

What had they shared? What had torn them apart? Was it that that had turned Meredith into the woman she was now, so broken inside? Derek hated that thought. The idea that Mark had had that kind of power over Meredith, that effect on her, that they had a past, a link that Derek didn't understand but that had helped her become the woman she was... Well, it drove Derek crazy.

Though, not nearly as crazy as the image of Meredith in Mark's arms and the idea of them making love, did. Derek hated the idea that Mark had once made love to Meredith, more than that he had made her his _wife_, that he'd had a claim on her that Derek never would.

That really got to him. Probably more than it should, considering he had chosen to leave Meredith and go back to Addison and yet...

Meredith was _his_, his love, his salvation, and to know that Mark had had her first... Well, it definitely didn't go down well, that was for sure.

* * *


	5. Part Five: When I Was Young

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Five- When I Was Young  
  
"So you're Merry." Addison said softly, coming up behind Meredith in the locker room, catching her in a spare moment.

Meredith spun around, obviously caught off guard.

"He never really talked about you," she continued, "but sometimes, in that first year, he'd get drunk and pass on out in our guest room and I'd hear him calling for you."

Meredith was still silent.

"Kind of ironic, isn't it?" Addison asked with a bitter smile. "You slept with my husband and I slept with yours and neither one of us knew it."

"Someone hates me." Meredith said finally. "That's the only explanation I could think of--that at some point I really pissed God off."

"I must have too." Addison told her, chuckling slightly.

"I used to wonder how you could possibly cheat on Derek." Meredith said suddenly. "I couldn't picture a man who'd make that possible, but knowing it was Mark... Now, I know. He... Derek makes you want stability, but Mark... He causes you to make impulsive, crazy decisions, even though you know they're wrong."

Addison was silent for a long moment. It seemed hard to conceive that she was having this conversation with her husband's ex-girlfriend, this heart to heart and yet... It didn't seem crazy at all.

"You were eighteen, right?" She asked, after a moment.

"Yes." Meredith confirmed. "Fresh out of high school and full of rebellion. I was hell bent on pissing off my mother and boy did I succeed."

Addison was silent, wondering if Meredith would elaborate.

"Mark... He was the worst thing in the world for me." Meredith said quietly. "But boy did I want him." She let out a gusty sigh and then shook her head, "of course, that was a very long time ago."

Addison just nodded. She understood all to well how easy it was to fall under Mark's spell...

"I have to get back to Burke." Meredith said a moment later, hurrying away.

Addison watched her go, wondering what the full story was. She was now convinced that a large portion of Meredith Grey's damage was because of Mark and she knew that the reverse was true, so she could only wonder at the cause of it all...

What had gone so wrong between them that it had caused so much damage and left them both unwilling to talk about it?

* * *

"You were married to Sloane, huh?" Alex asked, catching up with Meredith about five minutes after she'd escaped from Addison.

"Yeah." She confirmed.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alex asked her. "About him just showing up like that and being Shepherd's best friend? If you do..."

"No." Meredith said flatly. "But thank you."

Alex nodded. "If you change your mind..."

"I know where to find you." Meredith said with a smile.

She and Alex... It was weird, but she felt close to him in some ways, he was easy to talk to and of all her friends, she couldn't help but think he might understand her damage a bit more than the others.

"You're okay?" Alex asked after a moment.

Meredith took a deep breath. "I don't know." She said honestly. "Mark... Those wounds are old and now they've been ripped open and it's messy. Time doesn't heal all wounds, sometimes it just makes you forget they're there."

Alex nodded in agreement. "I know that feeling."

Somehow Meredith had thought he would, they had never really gotten into it, but she suspected that she and Alex had more than a little bit in common. If you live with that kind of damage, you know how to recognise it in others...

Meredith had to admit that she was curious about what Alex's story was, but she knew better than to ever ask. She didn't want to share her story, had only shared as much as she had because fate kept thrusting it out there for everyone to see.

Her mother's altztheimer's had been exposed for the world to see, as well as all the pitfalls of _that_ relationship and now her ex-husband had shown up at her work, tied into her current life. Fate definitely hated her, loved putting her personal demons right out there for everyone to see.

Maybe that was why she was so screwed up now, because she was never given a chance to bury her past and get about the act of trying to move on from it.

* * *


	6. Part Six: Long Ago and Far Away

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Six: Long Ago and Far Away

"Why did you come here, Mark?" Addison asked later, deciding not to bother avoiding him. 

"You know why I came here." Mark told her softly. "For you. I came to bring you back to New York."

"I don't want that." Addison said softly. "So please leave." "

I can't." Mark told her softly.

"Because you think you can convince me to change my mind or because _she's_ here?" Addison asked bitterly.

Mark was silent, which was answer all in itself.

"That's what I thought." She said softly.

"I still want you to come back with me, Addie." Mark told her quietly. "You don't belong here and you and Derek... You guys don't belong together. Seeing Merry hasn't changed my feelings. There's just... Unfinished business, that's all."

"What if I said I'd go, but it had to be right now?" Addison asked him. "What if I told you I'd leave with you on the condition, you walk away from Meredith and never look back?"

Mark froze and was quiet too long. 

"That's what I thought." Addison softly. "You're not done with her."

"Addie, you have to understand." Mark pleaded. "This is _Merry_, I haven't seen her in ten years and now... She's here and you want me to leave without even getting a chance to really talk to her? I can't do that."

"What happened, Mark?" Addison asked softly. "What happened between the two of you so long ago?" Mark's face closed up. "That's a long story, Addie, and this isn't the place for it." He told her coldly. "Now, I have to go, I have a case."

With that he walked away from her, leaving her staring after him. Addison sighed, wondering exactly what had happened to provoke that reaction, to have both Meredith and Mark walking away at the very mention? Just _what_ had they done to each other?

* * *

"So you were married?"

Meredith turned around to see Derek standing behind her. "Yes." She confirmed. "Briefly. When I was eighteen. It was a long time ago."

"You never mentioned it." Derek pointed out.

Meredith shot him an incredulous look. "_I _never mentioned it? You never mentioned the wife you _still_ had and you're mad I never mentioned that I have an ex-husband?"

Derek had the grace to look slightly ashamed. "You were married to Mark." He stated softly.

"Yes." Meredith confirmed. "I was married to Mark. It's a small world, isn't it? My ex-husband turns out to be your wife-stealing best friend?"

"Did you love him?" Derek asked softly.

"Yes." Meredith told him. "Yes. I did. Once upon a time. Not that it's any of your business."

Derek was silent. She was right, he had no right to ask questions about her history with Mark and yet... He was desperate to know. "Meredith..." He began softly.

"No." She told him. "You don't get to ask questions, you don't get to hear my sad tale because you know what, it has noting to do with you."

Derek was silent again, not sure how to respond.

"Just leave me alone. Please?" Meredith asked him. "I can't deal with you. Not right now."

With that, she turned and walked away from him, leaving Derek staring after her. Once again, it hit him how big a mistake he had made walking away from her and that it left him with no say in her life.

Apparently, something else he and Mark had in common, they were both stupid enough to lose Meredith--however, it seemed that Mark might have what he didn't, a second change.

* * *


	7. Part Seven: It's All Been Done

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Seven: It's All Been Done  
  
"Didn't we have a date tonight?" Mark asked, coming up to Meredith in the lobby.

"Dinner, reminisces, not a date." Meredith corrected quietly. "We left dates behind us a long time ago--not that we really had many to begin with."

Their courtship had been pretty whirlwind--in fact their whole relationship had lasted a mere three months, though the damage had lasted with Meredith her entire life.

"I'll settle for dinner." Mark said with a smile, then he sighed. "This... This is a lot more complicated than I anticipated, when I came here."

"I can imagine." Meredith said dryly, as they exited the hospital together. "After all, what are the chances? That we'd be the dirty ex-mistresses?"

"It is pretty incredible." Mark agreed, though silently he admitted that it made a lot of sense.

Both he and Meredith, or at least the Meredith he remembered had too much damage for healthy relationships, making them ideal candidates to be the dirty mistresses. Still what were the odds that they'd be part of the same love quadrangle?

"Derek and I always did have the same taste in women." Mark said quietly, reading her thoughts.

"I don't know why I never put it together." Meredith told him. "You used to talk about Derek and then... When Addison showed up, he mentioned his best friend Mark. Even though it was New York... I guess I never thought the world could be that small."

"Me neither." Mark told her. "I knew... I knew the intern's name was Meredith, but that was all I knew. If I had known it was you, well, I would have been here a lot sooner."

"Mark..." Meredith said quietly.

"What?" Mark asked her. "Is it wrong that I would have wanted to look up an old friend?"

"We were never friends." Meredith told him softly. "We were a lot of things, but never friends. Now, did we want to go get dinner?"

* * *

  
Mark looked at the woman sitting across from him, searching for signs of the girl he had known. Little Merry Grey had grown into a beautiful woman.

"How's the dragon lady?" He asked, making a face at the thought of his ex-mother-in-law. Now there had been one evil bitch of a woman, that was for sure.

"She's got Alzheimer's." Meredith told him.

Mark winced. "I'm sorry, that must be hard for you."

"Well, my mother and I never exactly had an ideal relationship." Meredith said quietly. "You know that."

"I know that your mother was very good at controlling your life." Mark pointed out.

Meredith winced. "Mark..."

"Forget about it." Mark told her. He was here to catch up on the years they'd missed, not to hash out everything that had gone wrong between them.

"You know, I almost went to a seminar you were speaking at." Meredith said quietly. "About two or three years ago. In Providence."

"Derek made me go to that." Mark said with a soft smile. "I hate seminars, hate teaching."

Meredith chuckled. "I remember. You used to say, 'greatness can't be taught, it simply exists'."

"Why didn't you go?" Mark asked quietly.

Three years ago his feelings for Addison hadn't crossed any lines, three years ago if Merry had walked back into his life...

"I... I chickened out." Meredith told him. "Told myself that I couldn't do, I couldn't look back. Those days are over, Mark. I'm not that girl."

"No you're not." Mark agreed. "You were a beautiful girl, but you're an even more beautiful woman and I very much want to get know the woman you've become. I knew Merry Grey, the girl. Now, I'd like to get to know Dr. Meredith Grey."

Meredith just looked at him and shook his head. "Mark, you came here to woo another woman." She pointed out.

"Yes." Mark agreed. "But you and I, we have unfinished business. YOu know that as well as I do. I can't walk away without understanding the woman you've become, because at least that way I'll finally able to mark that file as completely closed."

It was the most honest he'd ever been with any woman, admitting that he still had feelings for Meredith, that he still thought about her. Mark wasn't really one for talking about how he felt, or even examining how he felt. Mainly he just tried to ignore that he had feelings--well, other than sexual ones of course.

"If you're honest, I think you'll say you feel the same." Mark continued, looking at Meredith intently.

She was quiet for a long moment, her eyes much more haunted than Mark remembered. He wondered how much of that was him, how much of it was her mother, how much of it was Derek.

She finally nodded. "You're right... I need... I need to shut that door once for all."

* * *


	8. Part Eight: I'll Remember You

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Eight: I'll Remember You

The rest of dinner was quite enjoyable. They stared clear of the danger subjects: the past, her mother, Derek, Addison, and just chit chatted about everything else.

Meredith couldn't help but remembered that know one else could ever make her smile the way Mark Sloane could.

"...It was the first time I've ever been punched by anyone's wife." Mark said, finishing up an anecdote about a transgender surgery he had done.

Meredith grinned. "What? Usually jealous husband's doing the punching?"

Mark shrugged. "You know how it is."

Meredith smiled. "Yes, I do."

Same old Mark. He really was at his best when he was footloose and fancy free. It was that attitude that had so appealed to the rebellious eighteen year-old Meredith...

_"I think that seat has my name on it."_

Meredith turned to see a handsome man standing behind her, grin on his face. "Does it now?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

Her mother was speaking at a medical conference and had dragged Meredith along. Meredith had decided to spend the week taking advantage of her fake ID and hitting up all the local bars and getting in as much trouble as she could. This man looked like he might be able to provide the most delicious kind of trouble.

"And what name might that be?" She asked flirtatiously.

"Mark." He introduced. "Remember that, you'll be screaming it later."

Meredith laughed. "Will do."

"And what's yours." Mark asked, dropping into the empty seat. "Just, so I remember to scream the right name, of course."

"Why? Do you often scream the wrong one?" Meredith asked, trying to judge how old he was. She'd bet at least ten years older than her, if not closer to fifteen. She didn't care, but it would definitely irritate her mother. All the better.

"It's happened once or twice." He admitted. "But never with the ones as pretty as you. I'll definitely remember your name, if you ever tell it to me, that is."

"Meredith." She told him. "So, how about it? You at least gonna buy me a drink before we succumb to the throws of passion?

"Meredith?"

Meredith blinked. "Sorry." She apologised, embarrassed that she'd let her thoughts run away with her like that.

"Where did you go?" Mark asked curiously.

"To 1993 and a bar in Maine." Meredith said softly.

"It was quite the night." Mark said, his voice as soft as hers.

"That it was." Meredith agreed. "Even if your pickup lines are incredibly corny."

"But it worked, didn't it?" Mark said with a grin.

"Yes, it did." Meredith agreed wistfully.

She wanted to be eighteen again, rebellious and fucked-up, but not nearly as damaged. Oh, she had lots of mommy damage and a lot of daddy damage, but no man-damage. That came later.

And never again did she know what it was like to be a carefree girl in a bar, getting a thrill of being picked up by a sexy stranger. Oh, she'd picked up a lot of men, in a lot of bars since then, but it had never been the same... Ironically, only Derek had ever matched that thrill, that sense of dancing with destiny that she'd had that first night with Mark.

In that moment, she was filled with a deep sense of longing to feel that again, to be that girl again.

"When we're done here, I'm going to head to the Emerald City Bar." Meredith announced. "I feel like being a girl in a bar again, its up to you, if you want to be the guy I go home with."

She thought she was done with the random one night stands, with picking up random men in bars, but tonight... She needed that feeling, plus, she knew that Mark would take her up on her offer, so it wasn't really that random...

* * *


	9. Part Nine: The Way We Were

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Chapter One.  
_  
Chapter Nine: The Way We Were

"I think that seat has my name on it." Mark uttered the words, amazed that after all these years and all the women, he still remembered that night word-for-word. Of course, of all the women to go through his bed, Meredith was the only one he'd ever married, so that alone made her pretty damn memorable.

"Oh?" Meredith asked and then a quirkily smile passed her lips. "What name that would be?"

She remembered too. Mark wasn't sure why they were re-enacting that night in the bar, why Meredith had lured him there, but he wasn't complaining. Still, it wasn't 1993 anymore.

"I'm not reliving the past, Meredith." Mark told her. "I'm not pretending that we're who we were then, because we're not. I want you to come home with me, I want to make love with you over and over again and reacquaint myself with every spot on your beautiful body, but I want it as who I am now, not who I was."

"Ok." Meredith stated, standing up. She looked at him. "Only one rule--my name is the only name you scream. If I hear the name Ad-"

"You won't." Mark assured her, cutting her off. "I don't always remember the name of the girl I'm with, but yours was never one I could forget."

It had been months, maybe years before he'd stopped calling every woman he was with 'Meredith', at least once.

"Derek and Addison aren't part of this." Mark told her. "Maybe I still want Addison and you still want Derek and Hell, we might even help each other accomplish that goal, but tonight we have unfinished business. Tonight's just about us, no one else."

Meredith nodded and offered him her hand. "I'm all yours."

Mark took the offered hand, remembering that she'd said that to him before, with more innocence and sincerity. But a lot of things had changed since then. Maybe, too many things.

* * *

  
Meredith knew that this was a regression.

She'd given up using sex as a solution to her man issues, but... Well, this was different. This wasn't some random man, this was Mark, the man responsible for many of her man issues.

It was oh-so wrong, but felt oh-so right.

As she stood in the hotel room letting Mark undress her, she felt like she was eighteen and falling in love for the first time.

He was taking his time, slowly removing each garment one-by-one. When it was her turn, she was just as slow, savouring it.

Soon enough, though, they were both naked. They fell into each other's arms, like they had never been apart.

Meredith found it hard to believe, but she still remembered his body, remembered the touches he liked best and the same was obviously true for him. Each touch, each caress... It was like a old, familiar song. Even if you haven't heard it in a long time, you never forget the words.

Meredith lost herself in the familiar rhythm of tender caresses and heated kisses. Before long she was screaming Mark's name out as she orgasmed.

What seemed like an eternity later, she finally pulled away from him, but stayed facing him. "That was..."

"Amazing." He finished for her, laying a kiss on her bare shoulder. "It always was with you, Merry-Girl."

Meredith smiled at the old nickname. Maybe this was a mistake, but... It felt so good, so perfect. Because this was Mark and while this night was all about letting go, it kinda felt like coming home.

* * *


	10. Part Ten: Changes

Glory Days  
By Misha

_Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.  
_  
Chapter Ten: Changes

George watched Meredith come crawling in early in the morning.

He wondered who'd she'd been with the previous night. Sloane, no doubt. Had they really been married once?

George wanted to ask her, wanted to know all the gory details, but he held silent. Still, he wondered what she saw in them, Sloane and Shepherd, why she gravitated to men like that, men who hurt her and ignored him, who wanted nothing more than to make her happy.

"George." Meredith said with a smile, when she spotted him, obviously not embarrassed about coming in so late or early rather.

"Good morning." He acknowledged.

"Morning." She said with a grin. "I just have enough time to get changed and head to the hospital. Want a ride?"

"No." George told her. "I think I'm on later than you."

Meredith nodded. "Probably. I'm off pretty early tonight."

"Big plans?" George asked, in spite of himself.

Meredith shrugged. "I don't know."

"You're not seeing Dr. Sloane again?" George asked in surprise, before he could stop himself.

Could it really have been just a one night stand? George wasn't sure if that made it worse or better. Could you even have a one night stand with someone you used to be married to?

"I'm not even sure if Mark's sticking around." Meredith told him with a shrug. "Though, if he is, I guess I might see him."

She didn't look like it matter one way or the other and in that moment George realized he didn't really know Meredith and he certainly didn't understand her. Maybe he never had.

All this time, he'd had a ideal version of Meredith in his head, when the reality... Well, it was far from perfect. In fact, George wasn't sure that he even liked the real Meredith very much...

* * *

"I want a job."

Richard looked at the man who'd made the announcement with a raised eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You have an opening for a head of plastics surgery and I'm a plastic surgeon. In fact I'm one of the best plastic surgeons in this country." Mark told him. "I don't have a contract at Memorial, so I can pack up anytime, though it'll take a couple weeks to close up my practice and I want to work here."

Richard listened to the other man's, wondering how to react. Oh, on a practical side, he knew he should leap at the opportunity, because Mark Sloane was the best in his field.

Yet, Mark Sloane also meant trouble. Trouble for Derek and Addison and... Complications for Meredith. Richard knew the story there, knew how badly she'd been hurt, though he guessed that the man standing in front of him had also been hurt, but...

Well, Richard was very protective of Meredith and he didn't want to see her hurt again, especially given how badly she'd been hurt by Derek. The practical and emotional sides warred for a moment until finally he had to make a decision.

"Welcome to Seattle Grace, Dr. Sloane." Richard said quietly, silently hating himself.

_Meredith forgive me_. He whispered, hoping his decision didn't cause her yet more pain...

* * *

"I thought you'd be on a plane back to New York by now." Meredith said when she saw Mark emerge from Richard's office.

He gave her that killer grin that had always made her melt. "You underestimate me, Merry, do you think I'd give up that easily?" Mark teased.

Meredith laughed and shook her head. She knew better than anyone that he wouldn't. When Mark wanted something he pursued it with his full heart and now he wanted Addison.

There was a pang of jealousy, but Meredith dismissed it. She and Mark were long over, that was what last night had been about, about them truly saying good-bye. "So you're sticking around?"

"For the long haul." Mark confirmed. "I just signed on as Head of Plastics."

"Derek's going to love that." Meredith said with a laugh.

"Yes, yes he is." Mark confirmed with a grin. "But that's only the first part of my plan, you're part two."

"Me?" Meredith asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, you." Mark confirmed. "Have dinner with me and I'll fill you in."

"Am I going to like this?" Meredith asked with a shake of her head.

Mark grinned and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I think so. It's the sort of plan that would have appealed to the Merry Grey I knew."

"That was a long time ago." Meredith cautioned, but she couldn't help be intrigued. "But I am curious, so I'll meet you in the lobby at eight?"

Mark grinned. "Sounds good."

With that, he was on his way and Meredith watched him go, shaking her head the entire time. Same old Mark... Always had something up his sleeve.

* * *


End file.
